Brother Come Home
by WhatTheHeckyPadalecki
Summary: Injuries that go from bad to worse. An emergency run to Sioux Falls as Sam tries to keep it all together. He's falling apart, and Dean being in a state of comatose is the least of his worries. BrotherCentric slight AU during season 3. Sam never died, so Dean never made a deal.
1. Chapter 1

"Quit pacin'. You're makin' me feel jittery."

"Shut up, Bobby."

"You walkin' around ain't gonna make 'em appear any faster."

Jo groaned. She knew he was right. So, she stopped. She turned and faced him. "So what? We stick our thumbs up our asses while we wait for a grand entrance?" she grabbed her jacket from off of the couch.

"Where you going?"

"Out."

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed some keys from a table. She then slammed the door on the way out.

"Don't do anything too damn foolish!" Bobby shouted after her.

* * *

"Dean? Dean. Buddy, you gotta stay with me." Sam was driving the Impala as fast as he could in the direction of Bobby's house. So maybe going after a huge pack of werewolves was really dumb, but they did manage to kill most of them. You know, after one of them used Dean as a human punching bag. So here Sam was, trying to keep Dean awake until they at least got to Sioux Falls. Sam felt his phone vibrate. He answered.

"Hello?"

 _"Sam? About time one of you damn answered! Where the hell are you?"_

"Hey, Bobby. We're on I-29, headed up to you. I think Dean may have a concussion."

 _"I told you idjits not to go by yourselves! Jo's out lookin' for ya."_

"Jo?"

" _Well I'm just assumin'. She stormed out outta my house 'bout five minutes ago."_

"Okay then. So what should I do about Dean?"

 _"If it's a bad concussion, best bet is to take him to the hospital. I'll meet ya there."_

 _"_ Alright Bobby."

Sam hung up the phone and turned his attention to Dean. His eyes were half closed and he was mumbling something incoherently. "Dude, stay awake. You have to stay awake."

"Sd..mmngrr."

"What? Singer? Yeah, we're headed to Bobby's."

"Ssdnmgr," Dean mumbled, right before his head rolled back and his eyes went shut.

"Dean. Dean? DEAN!"

* * *

Bobby Singer and Jo Harvelle sat in the emergency waiting area of Avera McKennan Hospital. As soon as he had gotten off the phone with Sam, he called Jo to pick him up and take him to the hospital. That was 20 minutes ago. Time was once again dragging as Bobby paced this time, and Jo tapped her foot hurriedly against the floor. She occupied herself by inspecting the lines on her palms.

Jo's head shot up when she heard a commotion coming from the hallway.

"Get me a bed, now! I've got a young man, 28, with possible head trauma and extending other injuries," A woman was shouting to the people behind her. She ran through the door and was quickly followed by two young guys pushing a cot on wheels. Jo shot up out of the chair and looked at Bobby. They waited.

"We need a room, now!" the same woman shouted as she now walked alongside the cot while trying to stick an IV into an unconscious Dean's arm. Sam followed behind her. She turned and stopped him. "You stay in here. I have questions for you." Her attention almost immediately was returned to Dean as they disappeared behind a giant set of doors. Sam stood frozen, leaning against the wall where the doctor had stopped him. Bobby walked over to him.

"Come sit down, Sam."

Sam stared into space as he followed Bobby over to where Jo was sitting. He was silent.

Bobby tried to get Sam to talk.

"Are you hungry?"

Silence.

"Do you want a drink?"

Silence.

"I'm sure he'll be fine."

Silence.

"All right," Bobby said as he pulled himself up out of the chair. "I'm gonna go find something to drink. Jo, you want anything?" She shook her head. He sighed and left the room.

Silence.

"You know," Jo said as she studied her fingers. "I get sibling love. But what you and Dean have? That's Romeo-and-Juliet style codependence."

Sam jerked back and averted his gaze to Jo. "W-what?"

"He speaks! Sam, since you've been here, you haven't been able to function."

"You wouldn't understand. You don't have a brother."

Jo's face shot up to meet Sams. She laughed bitterly. "I wouldn't understand? Oh alright. Okay. Because, you know, losing the kid that I grew up with in the home that I grew up in isn't the same. It's not like Ash was family to me or anything," she said harshly.

Sam felt his face grow red. "I-I'm sorry. I forgot-"

"You know what Sam? It's ok. Everyone forgets about Ash. Hell, it's like my mom forgot about him." The last part was a barely audible whisper.

Silence.

After a few minutes, Jo spoke up again. "You know, this is the worst part. Not knowing. It's been like this for me all day. You gotta keep yourself occupied, so you don't think worst case." She stared out the window at the night sky. "When I got to Bobby's and he told me you guys were going after a pack of Alpha's, well, I freaked out." She looked back at him. "That was kinda stupid of you guys."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, well I can see that now. You know, that hunt was my idea? Dean even said it was stupid, and that we should take a break because we finally killed Yellow Eyes. But I insisted. And now, he's in there, and they said it's worse than just a concussion, and I-I can't..."

Sam lost it. He began to cry. He put his head in his hands. Maybe it was just the pressure, or the fear, or the anger. But he finally lost it. Suddenly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," Jo said softly. "It's ok. I'm sorry I was real hard on you. It's just that, these past few months have been really hard. And I guess I needed something familiar, and that was you guys."

"Did I just walk in to an episode of _Days of Our Lives?_ Quit fussin', you idjits. Dean'll be fine," Bobby interrupted. Jo coughed as Sam wiped his eyes. He sat down and stirred the black coffee in his hand.

"This could be awhile."

* * *

"Family of Dean Singer?" a nurse called out about an hour later. They all stood up and walked over to the nurse.

"Now which one of you bright him in?"

"That would be me," Sam said.

"Okay. You two can follow me," she indicated to Bobby and Jo, "But you'll have to wait here. Come on, this way." Bobby shrugged at Sam while Jo offered him an apologetic smile. Sam groaned. The doctor from earlier came out from the hallway Bobby and Jo had gone.

"Hi. I'm Dr. Grace Johnson, trauma services." She held her hand out to Sam to shake. "How are you related to my patient?"

"Uh-I'm his brother."

"Name?"

"Sam."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Sam Singer? Your parents must've hated you."

"It's-a... short for Samuel."

"What happened to your brother?"

"Well," Sam sighed, "We were at some bar about an hour from here. As we were leaving, about 2 or 3 dudes jumped us. They had bats and knives and crap."

"Bats and knives and... crap. Got it." She said as she wrote. "What next?"

"I can't really remember. All I know is that we got back to the car, and Dean couldn't keep his head up. Can I see him now?"

"Do you want me to tell you what is wrong before you just go in there?"

Sam nodded his head impatiently.

"From what I can tell, your brother did sustain a major head trauma. He has basilar blood clotting, and at this point I can't tell if it was caused by or did cause a cerebral aneurysm."

"Is that bad?"

"It can be, but if we keep him here under observation for a few weeks, he would be good."

"Great. Can I see him now?" He tried to walk past her.

"Slow down," she said flatly. "I'm not done. It seems that one of those thugs also stabbed your brother in the side of the hip with some 'knives and crap,' Luckily, the entry missed all vital organs."

"I'm sensing another 'but,'" Sam said.

She sighed. "But we had to do a blood transfusion, it cut an artery. He's fine now, I promise. But he needs to recover."

"Can I just see him now?"

"Follow me."

* * *

Jo felt like she had to tiptoe into Dean's room. Here he was, covered in tubes and machines and a gown and his skin so pale he looked like a ghost. It was too quiet. The rest of the ICU was so loud, with beeping machines and nurses running and doctors shouting and patients dying. _ICU is where people come to die._ But Dean's room, was somehow detached from the buzz outside. Besides the constant beep of his heart monitor, there was just silence.

"He's pumpin' blood all on his own, so that's a good thing," the nurse broke in. "He wasn't there for a minute. But he's good now. Well, except for the fact that this machine is breathing for him. But it has to right now. He's in an induced coma, so we can keep his temp down and speed up brain healing. We'll start trying to wake him up in about four days or so." She walked out of the room.

Bobby started murmuring. Jo tried to make out what he was saying. "Damn fool... tryin' ta scare me, ain't ya? Ain't gonna work... concussion my ass." She noticed his eyes were watery as he excused himself from the room. Jo walked over to the head of the bed.

"Bobby's right, you are a damn fool. You knew it was dangerous, yet you let yourself and Sam get in harm's way. And for what? For this?" She looked over her shoulder at the door. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't be yelling at you." She laughed. "Am I going crazy?" She pulled one of the chairs over to the bed and picked Dean's hand up gingerly, as though not to wake him. She stroked it gently. "Don't make me fall for you again, Winchester. I already got you outta my head once, and this whole damsel-in-distress thing'a yours isn't helping me do it again."

Silence.

She put her lips on his hand delicately.

"Sweet dreams, Sleeping Beauty."

* * *

 **Should I continue? Just putting this out there because I have a current case of writer's block on my other story Abandon All Hope. This one actually has a place in my heart because I was in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) two years ago for trauma. Please review!**


	2. Can It Get Any Worse?

_4 Days Later_

Sam opened his eyes. Peering out into the dimly lit room, he didn't recognize where he was at first. Then the dull sound of the beeping of the heart monitor next to Dean's bed brought him back to reality. He tried to sit up,but cringed as he realized he slept in a chair, and, his neck would be cramped for quite awhile. He looked up at the clock on the wall as he massaged his neck. It was 7:21 in the morning, and there was no way he was going back to sleep. He groaned as he got up out of the chair and made his way over to the door.

He walked out into the hallway and looked around. He noticed there was only one nurse at the desk that was usually buzzing with activity. When he looked to his right, he saw that Jo was asleep in a chair. Her hair was a disheveled mess, and she was snoring slightly. He smiled to himself. Jo and Bobby had become the only help that Sam had, and they took turns staying at the hospital. Sam, on the other hand, hadn't left, even to get some clothes and a toothbrush. Jo brought him stuff, and Bobby kept him up-to-date on hunts. It was a good system; you know, excluding the fact they were in a hospital.

Sam turned around and made his way to the elevator. He hit the button to take him to the first floor. It was the first part of his daily routine. Head downstairs, get coffee and breakfast, sit next to Dean, probably go to the bathroom, Jo/Bobby would bring lunch, they would eat, Jo/Bobby would sit with Sam until it was time to get dinner. Then Sam would sleep. Repeat. He groaned inwardly. He was not looking forward to another day of this.

* * *

"Hey, Sleepyhead. Wake up."

Jo groaned. Her whole body hurt, and all she wanted to do was sleep. Someone pushed her shoulder.

"Come on. Wakey wakey!"

She sniffed the air. "Somethin' 'mells good," she mumbled as she attempted to sit up right.

"Yeah? I brought you some coffee." She looked up and saw a blurry Sam Winchester. She smiled.

"Thanks, Sam," she said, instantly feeling better. She took it out of his hands as he sat next to her. She sipped it.

"Not bad."

"Yeah, well, it's Avera McKennan's finest hospital-grade coffee."

"You flatter yourself. I said 'not bad', not 'this is the best damn coffee I've ever tasted'."

Sam smiled slightly, but turned his attention to the doorway to Dean's room, not 10 feet away from them. His face instantly grew dark. Jo noticed.

"So they're gonna tried and wake Sleeping Beauty up today," she said.

 _Today? Is it really today? "_ I guess I lost track of time. Yeah, today's the day. Today's the day," Sam said, more to himself than to Jo.

He let go of a breath he felt he'd been holding the entire time they'd been there. Dean would wake up, and after another week or so, they could get back on the road. Relief washed over him. Jo got up out if the chair she'd been laying in and stretched. Her phone rang. She looked at it and her mood instantly changed.

"Sam, I'll be right back."

She walked away to a more secluded area of the wing, and started whispering angrily into the phone. Sam decided he did not want to be around to find out what the conversation was about, so he went back into Dean's room. Nothing changed, the monitor still beeped steadily, the dimly lit room still smelled of antiseptic. He pulled one of the chairs toward Dean's bed and watched his brother for some sign of life; but besides the steady rise and fall of his chest, there was nothing. He scoffed and put his head in his hands. _Maybe I'm taking this too fast. Slow your roll, Winchester._

He looked up when he heard the door open. Jo entered the room, her face red and her eyebrows were drawn together.

"Who was that?" He asked tentatively.

"Oh, it was just mom. She caught wind of Dean, and said she's on her way here."

She looked annoyed. "But... isn't that a good thing?"

She pulled a chair next to Sam and sat in it cross-legged. "If I tell you somethin' you'll keep it a secret?"

"I-uh... yeah. Uh, cross my heart, whatever."

"I don't want to see her."

"Why? Because she doesn't like the fact you're hunting?"

"That she learned to tolerate. It's just... the day that the Roadhouse burned down, and Ash..." she stopped.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Well, I had dropped by. And I asked Ash if he could help me with a hunt. Mom stepped in and said no, that he was doing work for you guys." She took a deep breath and Sam noticed tears in her eyes. She continued. "So, I left, went and found another hunter, chick named Annie Hawkins. Finished the job, went back home, but there was nothing but flames."

"So you blamed your mom," Sam said in realization.

She nodded as she choked as a tear rolled down her cheek. Sam felt guilty for the pain she was feeling. _Ash was doing work for us._ He pulled her in to a hug. She cried silently.

"Don't blame your mom, she was just trying to help us out."

"D-doesn-n't mak-e 't an-ny better."

After a while of her crying and Sam attempting to make her feel better, someone knocked on the door and in walked Dean's doctor. "We're ready to... am I interrupting something?"

Jo quickly escaped Sam's embrace and excused herself into the bathroom. Dr. Johnson just looked at Sam, but he turned his attention to Dean.

"So, you're gonna wake him up?"

"I can't guarantee that he will wake up. But we'll try. It might take a few hours, but its ultimately up to him."

* * *

"It's been SIX HOURS, BOBBY!"

 _"Calm down, boy. Give 'im time. I'm with Ellen, we're comin' on up your way."_

Sam slammed the phone shut. He didn't care what the hell Bobby was doing. All he cared about was the fact that Dean still wasn't showing signs of waking.

In the first two hours, he started warming up again. But since 11:13, he had maintained a steady 98.6 degree body temp with no change to his conscious state. Sam was getting frustrated. Nothing was making sense. He wanted to punch something.

Jo was on the other side of the room, reading out of a Chinese take-out menu.

"Sam, you like General Tsao or Sweet and Sour?"

The door to the room was flung open before he could respond. Dr. Johnson came in looking very worried.

"Sam, we just got some tests back concerning your brother. It seems that knife one of the thugs stuck him with was covered in chlorotoxin."

Sam stood up. "Chlorotoxin? What is that? Was he poisioned?"

"No. He was... for lack of a better phrase," she paused. "Injected with venom."

"...Venom?"

"Chlorotoxin is a main chemical compound in scorpion venom. Though how someone got a hold of a scorpion here, in South Dakota, and then slathered it's venom on the tip of some knife, I'll never know." She left the room.

Sam fell into his chair. _Venom? Scorpion VENOM? Why would werewolves use venom?_

"Jo, can I borrow your phone?"

She tossed it to him, and he dialed Bobby.

"Bobby, have you left yet?"

 _"No, we were just about to. Why?"_

"Can you do me a favor and see if you can find anything related to cases and scorpion venom?"

 _"Scorpion venom?! Why the hell do ya wanna look at scorpion venom and cases? You trackin' a giant sand bug in Arizona?"_

"Will you just trust me on this?"

 _"Fine. We'll look, but-"_

"Thanks."

He hung up and tossed the phone back to Jo. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"What are you thinkin' happened that Bobby needs to look up scorpions?"

"I don't know, I just have this feeling."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"Well, werewolves, even Alphas, don't use poision- or in this case venom- ever. They don't even stab. They claw and tear. Which we did get clawed, but it was a lot more precise than a normal Alpha wolf attack."

"So?"

"So maybe we weren't even hunting what we thought we were. Maybe it was something else."


	3. Technology For The Win

**First off, I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LACK OF UPDATES ON ANY OF MY STORIES! I just got back from touring colleges, BUT I AM SO SORRY. A THOUSAND APOLOGIES, MY LOVES.**

 **T** **hank you to miXiZ for lovingly stalking my profile and all my stories :) The reviews are so nice!**

 **Sunshine102897, now that I look at my stories, I realize that it does look like I have it in for Dean. um... I promise better days for Deano! Just not yet. (Hurt!Dean is just my aesthetic, apparently.) :D**

 **Also! Just wanna let you know that SamxJo is my BROTP. No romance there, but the BROTP feels are real.**

 **Anything else? No? I think I covered everything I wanted to address...**

* * *

Three days later, and they still had nothing. Dean was still out, and Sam was losing hope. He searched frantically on the internet for anything that could help. He was currently reading a Wiki page entitled _Monsters in Anasazi Culture._ His face was pallid and his eyes red and raw from spending so much time looking at the screen. He had heavy, dark bags under his eyes. His lips were chapped, he wasn't eating, and he wasn't sleeping. Ellen came into the room.

"Sam, you need to take a break. You're runnin' on nothin' but coffee and a few hours of sleep. Get some rest." She tried to take the laptop out of his hands, but he pulled back violently. "No!" he shouted, visibly startling Ellen. He looked up at her and tried to calm down a bit. "I'm s'rry, Ellen. I jus' wanna find som'n that'll help us."

She relaxed a little and got down in his face. "Don't you ever tell me no again, boy. Now, give me the laptop before I take it from you." He obeyed, and she shut it and placed it on a table on the other side of the room. She walked back over to Sam and placed a blanket in his lap.

"I'm so tired, Ellen."

"Then sleep."

He sighed and adjusted the blanket. "I mean, I'm tired of everything. I'm tired of fighting. I'm tired of this life. I'm tired of hospitals and monsters and death."

She sat down beside him and pulled his blanket even more around him. "Come 'ere," she said as she put her arm around him.

He leaned his head on her shoulder tentatively, wondering what she was doing.

"When Jo was little, and her daddy was out huntin', she'd get real scared, you know? Scared somethin' bad was gonna happen. So, I'd hold her, just like this, and she'd go right to sleep. Of course, she was about five times smaller'n you are," she laughed, and then grew somber again. "I can't promise you everythig'll be alright, but I can promise you that I'll be right here."

"Thnss," Sam mumbled, feeling his eyelids grow heavier. _I can rest for five minutes, that won't be bad._

* * *

"We can rule out ghosts, demons, vampires, kitsunes, wraiths, shifters, and about a hundred other things."

"Okay, so tell me what it can possibly be."

"Possibly werewolves, rugarus, okamis, skinwalkers, and a hundred other things. This isn't really helpful."

Jo threw herself back from Bobby's desk and slumped against a wall.

"Calm down, ya moron. We just... we need to collect ourselves. Let's just start from the beginning."

Jo took a deep breath as Bobby grabbed a pen and paper. "Shoot."

"Uhm... okay. What we know for sure." she turned and looked at the desk. "We know that it has claws, and has the ability to transform into something hairy."

"Which points to werewolf. But.."

"But the cuts on Sam and Dean were more precise, almost like they were aiming at something."

"Good! That's good. Keep going."

"There were three of them. They could run and jump like animals. Like a werewolf."

"But werewolves don't use poison," Bobby interjected.

"Venom," Jo corrected. "Scorpion venom."

"Whatever. And?"

She put her hand on her hip. "And nothin'. That's it. That's all we got."

"Damn!"

Bobby threw the pen and paper across the room. "Why can't there be a damn way to figure this out? Not like I got any books on wolf creatures that shoot scorpion venom! I'm goin' crazy."

Jo looked at Bobby. "Maybe we can search it."

"Search it? We just looked in every damn book I own!"

As Bobby was talking, Jo grabbed her keys off of the couch and pulled on his arm. "We're gonna use technology, Grandpa."

* * *

"Where the Hell are we?"

"The library."

"Well I can see that," Bobby sneered. "Why the Hell are we here?"

"Research."

Jo pulled him inside and led him to one of the desk computers. She pulled up the search bar and turned to Bobby.

"What was that thing you said earlier?"

"Why the Hell are we at a library?"

She rolled her eyes. "Not that. The thing about the wolf creature whatever?"

"You mean that I ain't got nothin' on wolf creatures that shoot scorpion venom?"

Jo bit her tongue as she typed _WOLF CREATURE SCORPION VENOM_ into the search bar. Bobby scoffed.

"This ain't gonna git us nowhere. We can't waste our time-"

The results of the search popped up on the screen. Jo smiled smugly at Bobby. She looked back at the screen and began to read. She clicked on the first choice and stopped. She gawked at the screen.

"Holy crap. Bobby, I think we... -I figured out what it is."

* * *

"I can't wake the kid up! He's gettin' some shut-eye, somethin' you should consider Joanna Beth!" Ellen whispered into her phone.

 _"We are five minutes out. I think we found what we're lookin' for. Make sure Sam is awake!"_

"I'm gonna let 'im sleep!"

 _"This is about his brother, Mom. His FAMILY."_

Sam heard the voices before he saw anything. When he heard Jo talk on the other end of the phone, he sat up immediately. "Ellen... Jo?"

Ellen looked over at him. "He's awake. Just git here." She ended the call and sat next to Sam.

"Wha is it?" Sam asked groggily.

"Jo seems to think they found your monster."

"Did she tell you? What is it? How do we kill it?"

She put a hand up. "Woah! Slow down 'ere, cowboy. Jo didn't tell me nothin' 'cept she wants to tell ya herself. In person."

"And they're just five minutes away?"

"Yup."

It was gonna be the longest five minutes of his life.

* * *

Bobby led the way to Dean's room. They walked as fast as they could. Jo had so many papers in her hands, some from the internet, some notes she had to jot down from calling other hunters. She thought there was a 90% chance she was right. And she wasn't usually wrong.

Sam was waiting for them outside the room. He held the door open and waved them inside, then locked the door. He turned.

"Tell me."

"You were completely wrong about it being werewolves."

"Then what is it?"

Jo looked at Bobby, then back at Sam.

"We think it's somethin' called a Manticore."


End file.
